Just got my copy of Shadow Factory by James Bamford I havent read it yet but my friends tell me its great. It brings to light the NSA and their illegal spying on Americans including US soliders and aid workers overseas. Apparently the 4th Amendment means nothing anymore.

Currently im wrapping up Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden. It was a great book if you dont mind military jargon ala Blackhawk Down.

Just got my copy of Shadow Factory by James Bamford I havent read it yet but my friends tell me its great. It brings to light the NSA and their illegal spying on Americans including US soliders and aid workers overseas. Apparently the 4th Amendment means nothing anymore.

Currently im wrapping up Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden. It was a great book if you dont mind military jargon ala Blackhawk Down.

Awesome read. Both 'Killing Pablo' and 'Blackhawk Down'.

I went mindless spew on my last one and read 'The Appeal' by Grisham. I'm back looking for something again.

I have been having a lot of fun rediscovering H.P. Lovecraft lately. Just finished "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and have moved on to "The Dunwich Horror."

Lovecraft is fantastic. It is interesting to read some of his characters and note how much the world has changed in 80 years.

A new fantasy novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman comes out next month titled "Dragonships." These two have yet to let me down. Their fantasy novels have proven to be the most engrossing and the least cliched over the last decade. I'll be grabbing this the day it comes out.

Also, let me recommend Nick Tosches "In the Hand of Dante." It just got optioned for a movie, but I read it when it first came out a few years ago. Burned through it in about 3 days. Great book.

War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest

Great book...describes not only the football lives of the coaches, but the social and political environment they were coaching in...especially poor Bo, who was stuck in Berkley East up in Ann Arbor. Bill Ayers...domestic terrorist and UM grad. Hell, he even tried to walk on the football team up there! Another in the multitude of reasons to love Woody, he visited Vietnam almost every offseason to show the troops that there was still some love for them back home.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves-----Abe Lincoln

Let me tell you, if any of you douchebag empty headed stuffed suit nanny politicians tries to fuck with my bacon, I’m going after you like a crazed chimpanzee on bath salts. -----Lars

I found it incredibly detailed and even handed. I really had no idea how excellent a field commander MacArthur was, and he eclipsed that with that with his writing of the Japanese constitution. He wrote the thing on his own. Basically yeah, the book was excellent, and I had no problem finishing the 700+ pages without boredom. If ya ever pick it up lemme know what ya think!

Gives ya a new perspective on that time period, cuz MacArthur was always mentioned as a potential Presidential contender on the GOP ticket.

"When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with money and the man with money leaves with experience."

1. Just busted out Alice's Adventurs in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I know, sounds weird, but was considering teaching it at some point this year. A much more interesting read as an adult.

2. I expect to receive the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for Christmas. Pulitzer Prize winner, and the premise seems intriguing. I'm going to have to wait another 9 days for that one.

3. Planning on picking up A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. He has some other novels out I'm interested in, so I figured I'd start here first.

Just ordered Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides off of Amazon. I read it back in college and it became my favorite book at the time, decided it is time to reread and see if I enjoy it as much the second time. This is Eugenides second novel, the first was The Virgin Suicides, which was also great (not as good as Middlesex though) and was turned into a decent Indy movie.

If you like complex and humorous fiction that layers morality, reality, history, perception, gender and truth you'll enjoy Middlesex. It hits on some major historic events while telling a very charming compelling and deep story through the eyes and life of a hermaphrodite. The story spans an entire life and geographies from Turkey to Detroit.... Many of you seem to stick to the nonfiction stuff though.

Going to order Middlesex and I just found out that since I first read it Oprah has put it in her book club.

Damn freaking bitch needs to keep her grubby and annoying paws off of my books.... I spit at her and in no way want to be associated with her... I am disgusted by this fact and her trying to ruin one of my all time favorite books for me.

Beyond angry....

The world would be a much better place without her doing her voodoo and manipulating the minds of stay at home mothers everywhere...

Now reading The Buzzard:Inside the glory days of WMMS... by John Gorman

an inside look at how WMMS became THE radio station back in the 70's. As someone who grew up in that era, my music taste was influenced greatly by what 'MMS was spinning compared to the other station in town.

Galley Boys are slop on top of a so-so burger and a bun you coulde get from a Covneninet food mart generic pack. They the Antoine Joubert of burgers; soft, sloppy, oozing grease and cheap sauce and extremely overrated by a biased fan base. Proof that if you throw enough cheap sauce shit on a burger you still can't overcome the lame burger. -JB

I am a first time poster but avid reader of both the columns and boards on this site. "A Heart so White" written by Javier Marias is a work of fiction that is on the cerebral and philosophical side but captivating nonetheless. It was inspired by the line from Shakespeare's MacBeth and translated from the original "Corazon tan blanco" in Spanish. That's what happens when you have a Spanish dork recommending books.

Just finished reading "The Hurricanes" by Jere Longman. It chronicles the football team formed when three rival high schools located on the Gulf merged into one, South Plaquemines HS, post Hurricane Katrina. Awesome stuff, very candid, definite big picture potential. The book is based off of Longman's series from the NY Times, linked below.

elsenortac wrote:I am a first time poster but avid reader of both the columns and boards on this site. "A Heart so White" written by Javier Marias is a work of fiction that is on the cerebral and philosophical side but captivating nonetheless. It was inspired by the line from Shakespeare's MacBeth and translated from the original "Corazon tan blanco" in Spanish. That's what happens when you have a Spanish dork recommending books.

Welcome to the forums! Don't be a stranger ...

"It's like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn." ~ Chuck Klosterman on Browns fans relationship with the Browns

I know most people just have it placed strategically on their bookcase but I thought I'd have a crack at it

I tried it once, got halfway through and gave up. It's now on the very bottom of the stack of unread books I have.

I'm doing quite well with it, now immersed in Part 4 of the book and although difficult at times I'm getting through it quite quickly

what put you off?

I think more than anything I got distracted by something else and just never wanted to pick it up again. But I want to get back to it someday. If I can force myself to get through The Aeneid, then I can read this.

I know most people just have it placed strategically on their bookcase but I thought I'd have a crack at it

I tried it once, got halfway through and gave up. It's now on the very bottom of the stack of unread books I have.

I'm doing quite well with it, now immersed in Part 4 of the book and although difficult at times I'm getting through it quite quickly

what put you off?

I think more than anything I got distracted by something else and just never wanted to pick it up again. But I want to get back to it someday. If I can force myself to get through The Aeneid, then I can read this.

oh the Aeneid yeah I read that in preparation for Dante's Inferno and the Divine Comedy

hard, deep stuff

"There is but one thing of real value: to cultivate truth and justice and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men"

Not really Brainiac material. But i'm knee deep in a couple comic books.

The Boys- Garth Ennis (Preacher) A team of weird characters join up to control the Super Heroes that are causing havoc. It's not for kids it's very violent much like Preacher. The dialogue is great. Currently on Issue 5 Out of 60.

Crossed- also by Garth Ennis- A band of survivors try to outlast an unexplained event that turns normal people into total mainiacs. This is the most violent thing I have ever read. The artwork is great and the story is interesting to say the least. On Issue 3 of 9

British_Pharaoh wrote:Along with JFK:An Unfinished Life by Robert Dallek I think it's a must read

Just saw a copy of this for $4.99 at the local book store yesterday. Guess I need to stop on back and check it out, thanks for the heads up.

Just finished "God Save The Fan" by Will Leitch. He is the creator and editor of www.deadspin.com. Great book for sports fans and his take on how ESPN is killing sports is right on. I enjoyed it and found it rather humorous even if I didnt always agree with the point he was trying to make.

“Baseball is like church. Many attend but few understand.”- Wes Westrum

"The future is like a Japanese game show, we have no idea whats going on." - Tracy Jordan

"Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot."-Rufus T. Firefly

Just finished reading Christopher Moore's latest Fool. Moore is one of my favorite writers because his novels are clever, funny, satirical and quite bawdy. Fool is a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. Intially, I hated it because it seemed to be nothing more than one dirty joke after another not to mention I hate Shakespeare. (My own personal theory is that the only people who love the Bard are people who were dropped on their heads as babies).

Once I got into it though the book was terrifically entertaining even though the bawdiness increased.

I just started reading Joe Gore's Spade and Archer. It is the backstory to The Maltese Falcon where we meet many of the characters that appear in Falcon and learn more about Sammuel Spade's history. I'm through page 50 and it is turning out to a page turner.

The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough. It's about the building of the Panama Canal. I was in the Army and stationed in Panama for three years. I had no interest in history until I was stationed in Panama and given this book by my parents. I could literally look outside the window of my barracks and see the canal. I'm re-reading it now and enjoying it just as much as the first time.

First book on the Kindle2 that arrived yesterday. Break that thing in bloody before the wife and kids foul it all up with Nora Roberts and Hannah Montana crap.

"Blood flows over my left hand and I lose my grip on his hair. His head snaps back against the floor. In an instant, his fists are pummeling me. I rock from his counterblows. He lands one on my injured jaw and the pain nearly blinds me. He connects with my nose, and blood and snot pour down my throat. I spit blood between my teeth and scream with him. The two of us sound like caged dogs locked in a death match. We are."

On the night of November 10, 2004, a U.S. Army infantry squad under Staff Sergeant David Bellavia entered the heart of the city of Fallujah and plunged into one of the most sustained and savage urban battles in the history of American men at arms.

With Third Platoon, Alpha Company, part of the Army's Task Force 2/2, Bellavia and his men confronted an enemy who had had weeks to prepare, booby-trapping houses, arranging ambushes, rigging entire city blocks as explosives-laden kill zones, and even stocking up on atropine, a steroid that pumps up fighters in the equivalent of a long-lasting crack high. Entering one house, alone, Bellavia faced the fight of his life against six insurgents, using every weapon at his disposal, including a knife. It is the stuff of legend and the chief reason he is one of the great heroes of the Iraq War.

Bringing to searing life the terrifying intimacy of hand-to-hand infantry combat, House to House is far more than just another war story. Populated by an indelibly drawn cast of characters, from a fearless corporal who happens to be a Bush-hating liberal to an inspirational sergeant-major who became the author's own lost father figure, it develops the intensely close relationships that form between soldiers under fire. Their friendships, tested in brutal combat, would never be quite the same. Not all of them would make it out of the city alive. What happened to them in their bloody embrace with America's most implacable enemy is a harrowing, unforgettable story of triumph, tragedy, and the resiliency of the human spirit.

A timeless portrait of the U.S. infantryman's courage, House to House is a soldier's memoir that is destined to rank with the finest personal accounts of men at war.